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Gasoline Ethanol-Requirement Increase Good News For Indiana Corn

David Cornwell
/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dave_cornwell/14959884063

On Wednesday, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed to increase the amount of biofuel in gasoline, a metric known as the Renewable Fuel Standard. That means more ethanol produced in the state will find its way into people’s cars.

The increase is good news for Indiana’s farmers. Kyle Cline is the National Policy Advisor at the Indiana Farm Bureau.

“Indiana’s a leading state in ethanol production,” he says, “and [the RFS] has been very important for our farmers’ bottom line and business.”

Congress created the Renewable Fuel Standards Program in 2007. It requires gasoline to contain a minimum amount of renewable fuels, such as ethanol. Congress originally set a target of 15 billion gallons of biofuel for next year. But the EPA got a waiver for a lesser standard, because of the recession and the price of ethanol imports.

Cline says the EPA still needs to hit that original target.

We’re still not happy with the EPA getting close to that target again, but not quite hitting it,” he says.

With this increase, the target would rise to 14.8 billion gallons, or 99 percent of the original 2017 target.

The EPA will open a public comment period on the proposal July 11.

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